Restoring Water Repellency

"Wet out” can put a real damper on your day. That’s when liquid saturates your garment’s outer fabric layer above the GORE-TEX membrane, leaving you feeling damp and clammy - as if your garment were leaking, even when it’s not.

What is DWR?

To prevent wet out, all GORE-TEX shell fabrics are treated with an ultra-thin treatment called DWR, adurable water repellent polymer that is applied to the outermost fabric layer. DWR penetrates the fibers and lowers the surface tension of the fabric, causing water to bead up and roll off this outer layer of fabric, instead of being absorbed.

DWR is not permanent, though. Regular wear and tear, plus exposure to dirt, detergents, insect repellent, and other impurities can shorten its lifespan. The good news is that restoring the water repellency of your GORE-TEX shell is extremely easy.

How to Restore Water Repellency

GORE-TEX Outerwear:

Machine wash your garment as described in the wash instructions. Line dry your garment, or tumble dry it on a warm, gentle cycle.

Once it is dry, tumble dry your garment for 20 minutes to reactivate the durable water-repellent (DWR) treatment on the outer fabric.

If unable to tumble dry, iron the dry garment on gentle setting (warm, no steam) by placing a towel or cloth between the garment and the iron. This will help reactivate the DWR treatment on your garment’s outer fabric.

When the factory applied treatment can no longer be reactivated, apply a new water-repellent treatment available as a pump-spray or a wash-in product to the garment's outer fabric.